Patient Zero
by Zarius
Summary: Some advice from April sparks some suspicions in Irma...what is it that April is hiding? And what is the secret of the M.R binder? (tag for "Green With Jealousy")


**TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES:**

**PATIENT**** ZERO**

**WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

**(Contains spoilers for "Green With Jealousy")**

* * *

It had been a long, arduous day at the Channel Six newsroom and April was looking to unwind at home.

On her way out of the building, she was confronted by her good friend Irma, who had a package in her hand.

"Here's the pictures of the nuclear powered submarine in port that you requested April" she said.

April took the package out of Irma's grip and ruffled her hair a little.

"Thanks a lot Irma; can I get you anything in return sometime?"

"I think I've gone off receiving gifts lately, you never know what or who comes attached to them" Irma remarked.

"Oh come on Irma, the Turtles weren't being themselves when they were love sick over you, you can pull blinders over your own eyes, but I see right through you. You loved what they did for you, you're just scared to step out of your comfort zone and take a chance on someone different"

"Well, what about you? You're normally not the one to mate with mutants either"

"Well, sometimes you just need a little push to see if you can stay steady on the edge of the cliff"

Irma had a hunch something was up.

"Did something happen to you on that sub?"

April anxiously laughed, as if trying to use the merriment to dismiss Irma's concerns, but managing to verify them to her friend in doing so.

"Knew it" she said.

"It was nothing, one of Shredder's goons had taken some of the same love potion the guys had ingested and got a little infatuated with me"

Irma raised an eyebrow

"Just a little?" she asked.

April anxiously checked her watch

"Listen Irma, I don't have a lot of time for chatter, I need to put together the follow-up bulletins for tomorrow, catch you after the morning bulletin Ok? Thanks for the photos"

With that, April darted along the side of the road that led directly to her apartment, leaving Irma with mischievous thoughts.

"Suddenly I'm not the one needing to set sail with someone" she remarked.

April arrived at her apartment, hastily entered the elevator, clutching the folder to her chest. She was standing beside a lean and swanky aristocratic type, one whose fashion seemed out of place with contemporary society, and conveyed a deliberate attempt not to blend in by its wearer.

April tried not to look the woman in the eye, knowing the lady would just start one of those trite conversations about how April's yellow jumpsuit made her look somewhat unbecoming, or, depending on whether or not the woman recognised her from television, give her a stern lecture on journalistic etiquette, and advise her not to dive head first into trouble and let the patriarchy handle it.

Ultimately, the woman went about her own business, not minding April much at all before departing the elevator when it reached her stop, which oddly enough made April confront herself with a few questions.

Why was she so fixated on gaining attention all of a sudden?

Was it because she got rumbled by Irma earlier?

Did she see herself as a big news story waiting to be exploited based on what had happened in the sub?

April reached her floor and stepped out of the elevator, headed towards her apartment door, and picked up the newspaper that had been left on the doormat.

She studied the pages thoroughly, found something, took it out of the publication, and placed the edition back on the door mat as she unlocked her apartment door, stepped inside, then locked it from the inside.

She took the piece of newspaper towards her desk, and took out a pair of scissors; cutting out a picture she had seen in the paper of her friends the Turtles doing battle with a large horned mutant rhinosaurus.

She opened up her file desk and took out a large binder labelled '_**M.R**_", which all contained similar photos and eyewitness accounts of the rhino's presence in the city, and neatly placed the clipping inside of it before turning her attention to the folder containing photos of the sub in port.

The sub, where her emotional journey had begun, where she become almost certain that perhaps the days of pining exclusively just for humans were steadily becoming distant in her mind.

She knew it was impossible to feel anything but contempt for the love-struck Rocksteady. He worked for Shredder, he had tried to hurt her friends, had tried and in many cases succeeded in capturing her, and above all else, he wasn't exactly of sound mind when he declared his devotion for her with intent on taking her hand in marriage.

It was impossible to love him.

So why couldn't she put him out of her mind?

She thought also to how she had tricked him into handing her the turtle-com she had dropped back on the pier just as she captured, how she had forsaken her own dignity to toy with his emotions and string him along with intent on returning his affections.

She enjoyed it.

She _really_ enjoyed it.

Maybe it was because Mr. Right was looking in all the wrong places whenever she tried to find a date, or maybe her job took her away from all those opportunities too much, maybe she just longed to hear someone speak highly of her in ways she rarely ever heard in public with normal human beings.

She'd even played hard to get back on the pier by running away in what, on the surface, appeared to be sheer disgust and terror.

Rocksteady eventually recovered the Turtle-Com, believing it to be her compact, and had handed to her. She knew she had to escape, but she privately commended him for remembering her needs.

She asked for privacy, he supplied it, and gave her a cute pet name as a parting line.

"Whatever sugar lips wants, sugar lips gets"

When April contacted the Turtles, she identified herself, without thinking, as just that. Sugar lips.

At first, she was disgusted, and reacted as such, but she had found time to dwell on it afterwards and in some ways was kind of flattered so much by the nickname she felt compelled to take ownership of it.

Of course, the romantic sentiments couldn't last forever. Later on that day, when confronted with a missile heading towards their escape craft, Rocksteady chose to save his and his partner Bebop's own skin and bail without April, forcing her to take a dive into the water while remaining tied to a chair. She almost drowned if not for the Turtles.

Yes, it was an impossibility to love Rocksteady, but perhaps, just perhaps, through his lovelorn actions, it was possible to give more considerate and kindlier mutants a fair shot of her fair heart.

This was the purpose of the "M.R" binder; this was the dossier on patient zero, the genesis of the epidemic that was soon to be **m**utant **r**omance. For April, the possibilities had become endless, but she had to take her time, and she also had to watch her step.

As proven with Irma and her three mutant sailors, as evident when Rocksteady first proclaimed his feelings for her on the pier, and as she told the Turtles after her rescue, the course of true love never runs smoothly.

Her favourite Turtle, Michelangelo, had the perfect response

"In our case, it just runs"


End file.
